Cleveland Cavaliers honor Brush High School teacher

Brush High School language arts teacher Rumae Watkins-Clark was about to begin the day’s lesson when Cleveland Cavaliers hype man Ahmaad Crump surprised her class.
“He walked in and he said they were making a presentation to somebody,” Watkins-Clark said. “The students — we were talking about it afterward — we were all trying to figure out who in this class is getting the ‘Head of the Class’ award?”
It turns out she was.
“I was extremely surprised,” she said.
In fact, Watkins-Clark didn’t even know the award existed until she received it.
“I had no clue, I actually did research on it after they came in,” she said. “Until the boys came in with the flowers, I still thought it was going to a student.”Head of the Class, which is put together by the Cavaliers organization, “recognizes teachers in Northeast Ohio for making a difference in the lives of their students both inside and outside the classroom,” according to Cavs.com. One teacher is selected for each month of the regular season, which runs November through April. Watkins-Clark is the first teacher chosen this season.
She was nominated by South Euclid-Lyndhurst School Board President Cassandra Jones, who came across the award while helping her son look for scholarship opportunities. Jones nominated Watkins-Clark for her work with the Minority Achievement Club Scholars Program.
The MAC Scholars Program is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary at Brush. Watkins-Clark was approached to lead the program, but was unsure at first. After doing more research into the program and the success it had at nearby Shaker Heights City School District, she agreed to take on the position.
“The program’s purpose is to close the achievement gap and level the playing field for all our students,” she said.
The club provides mentoring to students and serves as a “brotherhood of sorts to students who in a lot of cases don’t have those positive role models available to them,” Watkins-Clark said.
“It also teaches our students to appreciate what they have by exposing them to community service projects,” she said. “A lot of times you think your life is hard until you see somebody else’s life is really, really hard.”
As a Head of the Class winner, Watkins-Clark receives a $500 donation to her classroom, which she plans to use to for the MAC induction ceremony in December. She also received two tickets to a Cavaliers game and two complimentary Court Club passes to a recent Cavaliers game against the Washington Wizards.
Jones said students from Watkins-Clark’s class, the MAC Scholars, teachers, staff and administrators also were given tickets to the game.
Watkins-Clark said she is honored to receive the award.
“For them to think of me this way is really a shot in the arm,” she said. “I needed it, and it has helped me an awful lot.”